146 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
time to time arrived at the Museum, I was enabled to 
take, among others, the impressions herewith reproduced. 
Although they are not quite so successful as might be 
desired, they are yet amply sufficient to show the general 
plan of arrangement of their lines, and the variation to which 
they are subject in different genera. Enlargements from 
these same impressions are now exhibited in the British 
(Natural History) Museum. 
Before proceeding farther I must disclaim any intention 
of poaching on the preserves of the so-called science of 
“palmistry.” This, so far as I can understand its methods, 
deals exclusively with the folds or creases on the human 
palm (corresponding with the white lines in the annexed 
figures); while attention is here concentrated on the mode 
of arrangement of the raised ridges and their intervening 
grooves. It may, however, be mentioned that the creases 
in question have, both in man and monkeys, a definite 
mode of arrangement, which appears to be due to the 
position and action of the palmar muscles. What possible 
connection there can be between such muscular creases and 
the duration of human life or the vicissitudes of our mortal 
career may well be left for the professors of palmistry to 
explain as best they can. 
As regards the structure of the palmar ridges, an 
examination of the reader’s own hand with a lens will 
easily show that these consist of a series of very minute 
cone-like elevations, placed close together, and on the 
summits of which are situated the apertures of the 
sudoriferous or sweat-glands. If a section of the skin 
be examined under a microscope, it will also be evident 
that within these papillae are certain organs of touch 
know as the tactile bodies. Between the papillary ridges, 
as we may term them, are situated the equally narrow 
